AU
PG
Tony/Michelle, Bill/Karen slightly

This is a happy holidays to everyone. I hope everyone has a great season!

Tony ran his fingers over the texture of the paper one more time. It had become a daily routine for him. Every new letter, every new piece of communication was precious to him and if the only way he could be close to them was to touch the same paper they had touched, that's what he'd do. This particular piece of paper was extra special and therefore was already slightly fuzzy from his excited and nervous fiddling.

It had been four years seven months three weeks five days and nine hours since he'd touched her. Michelle had visited often but it was always behind glass. There were always other people in the room and he always had to hear her voice cracking from the half working phone she spoke into on the other side of the dividing wall. At least, he hoped it was the phone. He didn't dare linger on the fact that her voice was cracking because of him.

It was a week after his arrest that she came to tell him the good news; only she didn't look like she had good news. Good news didn't give her skin that pale, stretched too thin look. It didn't cause her eyes to become red and puffy from too much crying. He had done that to her. His incarceration had turned her good news into incredibly hard to hear news and had added an extra sting to his 20 year term.

"I'm pregnant Tony. You're going to be a father."

It took him all of a few seconds to make his first parental decision; all before the child had even taken its first breath.

"No. No, I'm not going to be a father. I know this may not be whatya want to hear Michelle, but I don't want my child to see me like this."

Being Michelle, she had argued back so much that at one point the guard had to tell them to keep it down. But in the end he'd won.

"I'm a failure Michelle. It doesn't matter why I failed, only that I did. I've failed you, my job and my country. I'm not going to fail my kid."

Slowly and with her eyes full of tears she'd nodded. He only had one condition.

"Just…make sure they write to me. If I can help in that way…"

Tony flipped over the paper in his hands one more time, skimming along the messy scrawl in red crayon. Merry Christmas daddy…

He made sure to hold the paper far enough away from the wetness that came from his eyes whenever he looked at it. Each year before this one, tears of sadness would speckle the drawings he would get from his son. He had them all stored away in a box under his bed. But this year, this drawing would not become stained with his tears alone. This year he'd get to sit with his son and his wife and they would speckle it together.

Michelle pulled into her driveway and turned off the engine. No. It wasn't her driveway anymore. It was theirs.

She glanced over at the passenger seat. Tony was slouching toward the window, staring hard at the house. She hadn't moved them. It was their house. The same house he'd bought her when they married. The same house they'd made their son in.

"You kept it." He said this without looking at her but she could tell from his voice he was surprised.

Michelle looked down at her hands, fidgeting with her keys. "Of course I kept it. I…if I had to live without you being here physically, this was all I had to hold onto. Well, until Ale' came."

She watched as Tony's eyes drifted from the house and seemed to look at nothing. "Alejandro." He said it so timidly that she knew he'd never let himself speak it out loud before. The Spanish inflection he gave it made her shiver. Alejandro was his son.

Tony brought his eyes to hers, seeming to read her mind. "I didn't dare breathe a word about him in there. It was bad enough having them know about you. But I couldn't…things were used against me."

Michelle just nodded. She knew about the fights, the beatings he got when he tried to defend his actions and her, especially her. She reached out and slid her hand along his cheek into his hair, pulling him to her lips. He breathed her in before deepening the kiss, groaning slightly.

"Are you ready to meet your son?" She smirked a bit at the nervousness in his eyes.

Tony took a shaky breath and opened his door.

They made their way inside and Michelle placed their things on the couch.

"Hey guys we're home!"

Tony watched as Bill came around the corner from the kitchen, wiping his hands on a dish towel. He hadn't noticed Tony yet, so he hung back out of sight, trying to get his bearings.

Bill pulled Michelle in for a hug. "I hope you guys are hungry. Karen has been at it since you left. I told her she was making too much but you know she never listens."

"I heard that!" Bill just rolled his eyes. Michelle smiled at him and turned to Tony, noticing how he hadn't moved from the foyer.

"Tony? Are you ok?" She took his arm in her hand and felt him pull her closer. He bent down and nuzzled near her ear. "I'm sorry sweetheart. I'm just not used to other people is all."

Michelle glanced over at Bill then back to Tony. "You don't need to apologize Tony. Bill and Karen just came to start dinner and watch Ale' while I went to get you. I can ask them to leave."

"No, I need to get used to this." He placed a small kiss on her neck and looked up at Bill.

Bill just smiled and reached out, pulling Tony into a big hug. "It's so good to see you Tony."

A little taken aback, Tony just patted him awkwardly and grinned. Karen came out of the kitchen and latched onto him as well. If hugging Bill was strange, hugging Karen was worse. He'd never even seen this woman before.

Karen released him and wiped her eyes quickly, gathering her composure. "I'm sorry. I know you don't even know who I am but I just couldn't help it." Bill wrapped his arms around his wife and nudged her back toward the kitchen. "I think we should get back to cooking and let Tony settle in." He turned and winked at them before disappearing back into the other room.

"Mom!" Tony jumped at the sound and watched as Michelle closed her eyes in frustration. She sighed loudly. "I've told him about shouting for me. His room is down here." He followed her to the second door on the right. She opened the door and walked in but he stopped dead in his tracks. His heart was beating about as fast as it had the first time he'd laid eyes on her. He closed his eyes and tried to steady his breathing. He focused on her voice. "Ale', what have I told you about screaming in the house? Put that away for right now, there's someone here who wants to see you." Tony opened his eyes at that and glanced around the corner of the door. There he was. His son.

Alejandro's room was a dark blue color, his favorite and was papered with drawings and posters. Tony assumed it was some kind of kid's show. The furniture was all fit for a child and small in nature. His bed was a race car and he had a huge art table on the far wall, where he sat scribbling furiously. Tony watched his small hand move back and forth quickly, his tongue stuck out in concentration. He was beautiful.

Tony reached up and wiped his eyes. It was like looking at a smaller version of himself, but with subtle hints of Michelle only he could see. His hair was long and curly, falling into his eyes causing him to brush it back. His skin was tan like Tony's but was smooth like Michelle's. He finished what he was coloring and turned toward his mother to speak, but noticed Tony watching him from the door.

For a few seconds they just stared at each other. Ale' turned toward Michelle and finally spoke. "Papa?"

Michelle gave him a watery smile and nodded. "Why don't you show him what we practiced?"

Tony held his breath as he watched Ale' approach him timidly. Ale' wiped his palms on his jeans then reached up and scratched the side of his face. Tony let out a sharp, broken breath and Michelle watched as tears ran down his face.

"Papá de la Feliz Navidad." (Merry Christmas dad.)

Tony gave Michelle a shocked look and she started crying, a smile still on her face. "I thought he should know it."

Tony moved his eyes back to his son and knelt down on one knee. He had barely settled when he had an arm full of child. Ale' had moved quickly towards his dad and wrapped his small arms around his neck.

Tony pulled him in as close as he could, both of them crying into each others hair. He brought one hand up and ran it over Ale's head.

"Feliz Navidad mi hijo." (Merry Christmas my son.)